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Motorola's GrapheneOS phones will launch in 2027 priced higher than Pixels (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 days ago by to c/technology@lemmy.ml
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[–] 10 points 1 day ago (1 child)

@yxc999 @zdhzm2pgp

> even this one is way overkill for what I want in a phone. Why can’t there just be a low-spec one instead

Exactly this.

My solution is: dirt-cheap bargain-basement Chinese phones.

They do the job and you can get a lot for under £150.

My best buy was an Umidigi F2. Stunning device for £125. I have bought dinners that cost more than that.

*But* you'll never get an OS upgrade, they're unsupported by all the alternative OSes, and there is the everpresent risk of spyware.

For me, that's worth it, but I get that it's not for everyone and so I do not unequivocally recommend them.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    Well I do want GrapheneOS on it so they aren't an option. I just wonder why noone is capitalizing on a ~200 bucks GrapheneOS phone for people like me who don't need the processing power or even lower-spec models for criminals who literally only have Signal on it. I mean which criminal organization or activist group or whatever wouldn't buy a box full of sub 200 bucks GrapheneOS phones?

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  • [–] 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

    You'd need be able to relock the bootloader while allowing any properly signed OS to be installed, even custom ones. There's a few phones that let you do this that aren't Pixels but not really documented well. Apparently the bootloader relock is an advertised feature and not an oversight like other phones^1^.

    That and google has the titan m2 chip so I'm assuming Motorola will incorporate something similar as well along with proper hardware support.^2^

    If you want to have a cheap phone that runs a secure os securely, you'd need to build it (like Lineage os)and sign it yourself with your own keys.

    And then with this you'd have to find a phone that supports lineage os, has an unlockable bootloader, has an unlockable bootloader that will let you use your own keys, and have the patience to build LOS yourself. I've tried this once and it's hard.

    My last Android phone was a moto e2 LTE running lineageos and I was running around with an unlocked bootloader. I was a teenager so no banking apps and nothing was really looking for root or bootloader state. This was a $40 smartphone in 2015 with 1 gb of ram. Anything was an improvement.

    ^1^: Documented phones that had self signed copies of LineageOS are the Pixel 4, OnePlus 7 pro and OnePlus 8t. https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-re-locking-the-bootloader-on-the-oneplus-8t-with-a-self-signed-build-of-los-18-1.4259409/

    ^2^: Im used to old Lenovo owned Motorola with ill supported phones. The aforementioned moto e2 lost support less than a year after launch (but that was more due the handover to Lenovo and that was a Google designed phone). A lot of their E line phones would get one version and then a new phone would drop with basically the same hardware. E4 and E5 were like that. The more expensive ones had a bit of improvement but not much more. Supposedly they want to get better with support but I won't be surprised if that promise falls short.

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  • [–] 3 points 23 hours ago

    First, phone makers need a strong market signal that a significant number of people do give a damn about security and privacy.

    When "everyone" is on Whatsapp/Facebook/X/etc., it's hard to believe!

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